I was wondering what are some of the better ways to boost your stealth abilities beyond attributes and skills. What cyberware, bioware, magic, adept stuff, etc are good to make you stealth really good?

Thanks guys, I have learned a ton about the game from your posts so far. This is an excellent forum because you guys are active and knowledgable. I love it.

Klinktastic

Let's see:
Reflex recorder bioware adds to the skill
Improved ability adds to the skill.
Powers and tech add to the attributes.

Outside of that:
Ruthenium stealth suit. (don't forget the thermal dampening)
Invisibility.
Magical silence.
Concealment spirit power (this is a big one)
Traceless walk

Less conventionally:
Good perception - You can't avoid the security if you don't notice that it's there.
Good athletics - there tends to be less security where they think you can't go.
Good con - 'cause someday, somebody's gonna spot you, and don't underestimate where a clipboard and a good story can get you.
Disguise - do you not want to be seen, or not want to be seen as a problem?

You are gonna get so flooded with good suggestions, I predict.

Thats the idea!

As a GM I hate the concealment power. I should start using that one.

There's also the potentialy to be doing the stealthy stuff using drones (or the new biodrones in Aug) or even using spirits and/or being astrally projected. By these methods you take your meat body out of the equation (with the exception of projection). Hell, even hacking into a system from off-site and looking at the grounds through their own cameras, which may be an option at poorly secured locations, might work, too.

Check out the Trid Phantasm spell and give your imagination a work out. Not all of the uses for it are exactly stealthy, but at the very least it's an awesome distraction. It's like having a flash mob and movie set in your pocket.

A prepared and utterly plausible distraction can be a life saver. Say a Drone with a sniper rifle attachment, stashed outside the compound. Trip an alarm and have it set to automatically engage guards in its vision. It won't get very many but it'll redirect their attention.

And piss them off.

Gecko Tape Gloves are excellent for the odd wall crawling.

If you're not a magician or a mystical adept, pay for a Bound Spirit to follow your orders. Or ask for a few spirits from a magical buddy. Concealment and Levitate are pretty sweet.

And of course for magical defense they're priceless for the mundane.

Another trick really is proper casing of the target. This involves two spirits; one to raise an unholy ruckus at the facility so that you can observe their security patterns and protocols, gear, etc. The other to erase the astral signatures. It requires a forgiving GM.

Since you'll be in my games, klinktastic, you should know that I gimp the phantasm (and entertainment) spells. Too often my players have taken Trid Phantasm and used it to replace every other illusion spell in the book, which being a liberally minded person I allowed for a while, but no more. Thus, while some games may allow Trid Phantasm to create a multi-sense invisibility, it doesn't work out that way in my games.

I just didn't want you to get all excited about the spell and then find out that I gimp it.

Eh, I can't say I blame you Dashifen. That spell can be pretty broken even when restricted. Hell, I've saved a run before merely by making it look like I ran up the stairs rather than down.

For reference (and for klinktastic's benefit) I would let Trid Phantasm make the appearance of someone running down the stairs but invisibility would need to be concurrently used to hide the direction you really moved in.

Last week's game I made a celebrity appear as I was being followed in a crowded downtown street, emerging from a shop with her entourage then dashing back inside. Instant bruhahaha, got away in the confusion.

Trid Phantasm needs to be reworded to be able to make things appear only.

Exactly. It's a spell that can create an multi-sense illusion but not to the extent that it replaces any other specific spell in the Illusion category. Anyway, we're off-topic.

There is of course the disguise route. Nano disguises of appropriate employees, etc.

I'm a bit surprised that some "Stealthy" characters don't have the Thrown Arms skill. A few well placed grenades like Thermal Smoke can let you resume infiltration although your cover would've been blown.

Further guarantees of success: Drones. I like drones and so should you. A few micro or mini drones (crawlers and flies) can expand your 'awareness' of your surroundings. Even microsensors can be placed in certain areas. As long as they don't have a lot of wireless jamming, check the paint and wallpaper, they can keep an eye out for your back.

You're a scout. They're you're scouts. You don't even need to be a hacker or a rigger to use them. Spring for some decent Pilot software and various upgrades, load up Maneuverability and Clearsight 6 too.


Ooh; get an RFID sensor, skinlinked to prevent wifi broadcasting, as an accessory. This is what my current mage has. Load these up with Capacity [1] stuff. I have one that's a Radio Signal Scanner. Some traps, sensors, etc., aren't hardwired and can be tough to detect. Likewise equip these on some of your drones.

They may even lead you to where you wanted to go in the first place. You'll at least be able to map and note high wifi traffic areas as likely routers or security nodes. Places your hacker buddy can jam or hack themselves.

The most effective way to be stealthy to Matrix and Astral observation is to simply not be there at all. If you don't have any magic going and all the wireless activities are shut off on all your gear, you are virtually indetectable by non-physical means.

-Frank

An Area Thought Recognition spell set to detect the thought of you or your team can let you know when you've been discovered.

For sneaking through the Astral not a whole lot can be done but if you can handle the physical drain of Mob Mind (since you'll be preceiving/projecting astrally) then lassoing with Mob Mind, Altering their memories, then having them influenced to continue can allow you to remain undetected... long term.

The dissipation of a spirit alerts the summoner so catch-and-release is the only real way to bypass astral defenses.

Kill everyone that saw you and burn all the physical evidence to the ground.

Nuke the place from orbit; it's the only way to be sure.

4 spells: Improved Invisibility (vs all visual) + Stealth/Silence (vs hearing and ultrasound) + Physical Mask (vs pheromone detectors and olfactory) + Levitate (vs pressure sensors) lets you ghost passed everything except physical touch.

The real trick is getting passed those with Astral Perception. Invisibility spells won't work at all and Concealment powers won't work if you walk right in front of the spirit/mage.

Wards suck the worst, there's no good way to get passed those unless you spend a few days tracking down the creator and spoof his signature with metamagics. Still doesnt work for your team though.

Don't forget distractions. Loud noises and bright flashing lights in places where you are not at give penalties to find you, as does smoke.

Mind manipulation spells. "we are not the shadowrunners you are looking for."

Dupe another set of runners into attacking the front door, while you are stealthing in the back way.




-karma

Invis is opposed by counterspell+Intuition.
Sometimes its better to use a Camoflague spell to add more dice to an already silly high Infiltration dicepool.

chameleon suits with thermo dampening for if you absolutely can't be seen.

I'm actually quite fond of the show up and look like someone else disguise approach. I recently got to make a character and play in a game as opposed to run one, and I made a human looking ork with no magic and no cyber/bio. He's got good skills and a ton of equipment. With a bit of planning and good legwork he can pose as an employee and get into a facility before hand to physically shut off cameras or things like that. Also works good for impersonating the security director and making cameras look the other way or sending the guards to the wrong location. I guess that falls under the distraction part. There is another PC with somewhat similar abilities and between the two of us and the technomancer we can wreak enough havoc from the inside that the others can usually get in without encountering anyone.